The Shadow of Deception

Quinton Corwin 827 E 7th St. York, NE 68467 402-989-2271 [e-mail]

About Number words

The shadow of deception

By Quinton Corwin

Prologue

The pouring rain and the breaks of sun above him was satisfying and calming.

He looked out the window and let out a sigh as he got ready to go on his daily two mile run in the morning as he took off his night outfit and put on the track gear. He walked out the door and closed the door behind him and put on his favorite workout music. He started his daily routine with a slow jog and increased in speed when he when he went down hills and sidewalks. He would run next to government buildings, small-owned businesses, and the normal coffee shop where he would normally go to get the normal coffee and bagel before he would have to go into work.

He got home, got out of his workout clothes and hopped in the shower, eagerly thinking about the day he had ahead of him. He worked as a staffer for a senator at the government building in the heart of Boston. As soon as he got out, he had the task of picking out which suit he would be picking out for the day, a struggle most mornings. After a few minutes flip-flopping through the closet, he finally picked out the outfit. He finished the morning routine by heading off to work, and got right into the vehicle to head off for another day. About halfway through his drive, the phone rings. "This is Blake."

"Hi Blake, it's Nick. I wanted to talk to you about an amendment to the legislation your boss is planning to introduce?" said the voice on the other line.

"Yes, I'm on my way to the office, but I did have the chance to read some of it last night."

They continued to talk on the phone for the next several minutes as they continued to their conversation on the mountain load of papers known as the 'amendment'.

Blake stopped at the right light, and kept talking to Rep. Plen's aide about businesses. The green light came on. He slowly tapped the brake and kept going. But as he was about to arrive, a vehicle from the right side of the street honked and Blake looked to his left to see that vehicle losing control. Blake tried to avoid hitting the vehicle, and barely missed, and Nick practically said, "Mad drivers out there, aren't they?"

Chapter 1

Beeeepppppp.....

Blake slammed his hand on the snooze button of his alarm clock. He got up from his bed, unusually late at some point in the morning. 10:00am. He got up to go to the bathroom and shower and get ready for the day. Then he got up and grabbed the normal cup of coffee from the machine. He had some back issues after a bike accident, but he was recovering quite well. He sat down at the table and started reading the newspaper, talking about different political things happening in Boston, but also around the country as well. He usually mumbled at a lot of the things, but also didn't care for much of it as well. Blake missed being in the political world in person, but with consultation with his doctor, they recommended he work from home for the next couple of weeks. He hated the thought of that, but had to accept it. He recently had accepted a job as an investigator for the FBI in the Boston Office and did that remotely for the time-being.

He walked back to his living space area and cuddled up on the couch while he figured out what show he would end up re-watching or one to criticize for awful comedy and humor. That's something he most enjoyed while getting his work done. After almost an hour of doing all of the work he needed to get done, there was a knock on his apartment door. It happened to be Nick. He came into the apartment with a work bag, and also a couple of lattes to Blake's likeness. Nick shut off the television and set the remote down right next to the plant on the coffee table. Nick then took out a set of documents and had Blake look over them. It was the amendment they had used to been working on for some time that they originally thought they were going to pass, but it ended up failing by a single vote.

They conversed about different things for mostly 15 minutes, when Blake wanted the TV back on. As usual during these times, Nick tried to change the conversation a few different times, but never worked. He picked up the remote and turned it on to the news channel. It was mostly boring stuff, a high school sports tournament in the area, new appointee of a department, it was mostly moot for both of them and they barely paid any attention to what was going on in the first place. At 10 minutes past the hour, special music was playing from the main television screen. "Good grief, I must've accidentally hit something on my phone to turn that on" Blake muttered.

A time clock appeared on the screen counting down from 15 seconds. "I don't think it's something from your phone." Nick replied, pointing at the TV.

After the time clock had concluded, the screen showed red breaking news on the screen. The news anchor came on with the news. "We are on the air with some breaking news. It was announced just moments ago that Rep. Robert Plen was found shot to death in his home late Tuesday night at his apartment. Investigators are treating this as a homicide and will have more details in the coming hours and days."

They both started at the screen in horror as they found out about his death. They couldn't think of any reasons why someone would want him dead. Nick then told Blake about that had explained why they had trouble reaching him when they noticed he hadn't come into the office that day. Nick had to make a few phone calls as he had to speak with the team at the Assembly about the news and how it would be announced on the floor. Blake reached for his phone and made a phone call to his office. The other person on the line said, "Hey, Blake! We missed you at the meeting. Is everything ok?"

Blake then told her to video conference him into his former stomping grounds. His co-worker, Hazel, did so and Blake was there with his team only a minute or two later. "Party pooper!" one of his co-workers mentioned. Hazel shut them down.

"Why is Nick pacing back and forth in the background there?" Hazel asked. Right then, his boss, Rep. Quinn appeared.

"I'm not sure if you're hearing the news at this present time, but Rep. Plen was found shot to death in his home. They think it happened sometime during the evening last night, but his body wasn't found till this morning."

"Good God." Hazel replied.

Rep. Quinn was pacing around the room himself, devasted from the news that his good friend and colleague was gone. Blake could tell his boss was devasted and it was hard to get the words out of him. "Boss, I'm sorry."

"Thanks, Blake." Rep. Quinn replied as he exited out of the room.

Hazel, Blake and the team spoke about future plans, what would happen with the bill and the amendment, or what could've happened that caused Rep. Plen's death. Was it because of political reasoning? They weren't sure, but they sure as hell wanted to figure it out somehow, but didn't know how to start or if it was the right thing to do in the first place.

Chapter 2

It was about 7:30 in the morning and Blake was not in the mood to be waking up so late in the morning than compared to normal. It had been a few days since Rep. Plen's murder. It was the day of his funeral, which was taking place in a few short hours over at the church that was near the Assembly building. Session was cancelled so that all members could attend. As he slowly got up from his bed, it was hard to think about the day ahead and couldn't think about anything else. After he got ready, he met Hazel and the team over in his apartments lobby, there, they would all walk over together to meet Rep. Plen's team and family and wish to them their own condolences. It would be a simple funeral mass, as Rep. Plen had wanted this whole time. It was a big church, so it was planned to be packed full of his friends and family and former colleagues from all across the political spectrum.

As they arrived to the church, Hazel looked to her right and saw some news vans that had started arriving. She looked at Blake and he looked over to see the same exact thing. He whispered to Nick, "Didn't Plen not want news coverage here?"

"He didn't." Nick replied as he looked over at them setting up their cameras and mics.

They all walked into the church and Nick, Hazel, and Blake walked over to the viewing area, where Rep. Plen's wife was standing there, talking with his sister and mother. His wife noticed them and excused herself to go over to them. "Mrs. Plen, I'm so sorry for your loss." Nick said as they all one-by-one gave her a hug.

"Thank you Nick, he held all of you in high regard. He enjoyed working with you all to work for the common good." His wife said as they all gathered to process out.

It was a wonderful service and there was a lot of tears and laughter as so many speakers were talking about their memories and funny stories, including one where Rep. Plen had walked into the legislative chamber after the members had a luncheon, a wide selections of different meats from the area and also cheeses. All that they heard that day was Rep. Plen letting out some air, which could be heard all over the place. All of them, including Rep. Plen stopped dead in their tracks and had what seemed like a whole debate on comedy hour.

After the service was over, they all met in the parish hall, where a reception was held, as they all remembered his life. They all walked over the room and talked with everyone that they could talk to.

At one point, Blake could hear sirens going off in the background. He noted that with Hazel and Nick, and they all agreed silently just to ignore it. Nick's cell-phone started going off and he had to keep shutting it off. It kept doing so until he answered the phone. "Hi, this is Kate Oakes with Local 6, I wanted to get some comment from you regarding a suspect in your former boss's murder?"

Nick looked stunned as he immediately hung up the phone and looked over at Blake and Hazel. "We got to go." He said as Hazel and Blake looked at each other and walked out together out a side door where they hoped not to be seen by the news media that was gathering outside the church.

"Nick, what is going on?" Hazel asked puzzled.

"There's media outside and they're brewing up trouble." Nick replied.

They walked onto the street and back to Blake's apartment. They were trying to decoy themselves enough that they didn't have to face what could happen. They were so close to making it to the front door when someone shouted behind them, "Sir, what is your reaction to Mrs. Plen being potentially charged for the murder of her husband?" It was Ms. Oakes with Local 6.

Nick, Blake, and Hazel kept walking away from Ms. Oakes as they were trying to escape prelim questions about the information that they had not been presented yet. It was the day of her husband's funeral and the news media was already speculating that she had personally killed her husband and somehow covered it up? They made it back to Blake's apartment, where Hazel and Blake tried to get in touch with Rep. Quinn, whom was still at the remembrance reception at the parish hall. It was a couple of minutes later when he was just about to walk out. "Is everything ok? I'm just about to leave to head back to the office for a while. Where are you guys at?" Rep. Quinn asked in a huff.

"Blake's apartment. There's a reporter from Local 6 that called Nick and asked about a potential suspect, but before she could name someone, Nick hung up and we raced back towards Blake's place. At the time before we could make it back, she confronted us and asked about the possibility of Mrs. Plen being charged with her husband's murder." Hazel hurriedly replied.

There was a brief silence on the phone, to which no one said a single word. "Do we know any more information about this possibility?" Rep. Quinn then asked.

"No, we don't. We were hoping everything was ok there if Mrs. Plen hasn't even been confronted herself." Blake responded.

"Not yet. I'm hoping that doesn't happen. For God's sake it's the day of her husband's funeral." Rep. Quinn said.

Right as Rep. Quinn mentioned so, the phone died. "Hurry up and get it charged!" Nick exclaimed.

"So sorry, I thought it was charged." Blake said as she hurried to find a phone charger.

Nick and Hazel worked to check their phones to see if there was more information popping up in the near minutes. Hazel looked up and said, "Oh my God, there's a press conference happening with FBI and the Police Department tomorrow morning. 9:15am."

Blake's phone buzzed. It was Rep. Quinn, asking why the call got disconnected. He called him back and put him on speaker so they could tell him the news about the presser. "Good God. We don't need any of this right now." Rep. Quinn said with a mood.

"I agree. Let's meet up at the FBI office tomorrow in our conference room if that's ok along with Nick and Hazel and we can find out what the hell is going on here." Blake rebutted.

"I'll be there."

Chapter 3

The clouds were darkening outside the office as Nick and Blake were running to the office, to a conference room, where the television was turned on. The anchor was talking to the reporter about what details the news conference would be about. "Well, Chip, this news conference was just announced just hours ago with no warning. More details will be on our social media and our news website as details are given."

"Thank you, Will, for that reporting, we'll check back in a bit with you."

The door opened to the conference room once again as Rep. Quinn entered. He was in much more comfortable clothing, and sat down in one of the chairs without any word to anyone. Murmurs started with Hazel, who looked at Blake and Nick, and started texting each other about what would transpire. As Nick was about to say something, "We now have some breaking news entering the news room. We now go back to Will at the conference, where Police Commissioner Wilson is now coming out."

"Thank you Chip. There's seems to be a lot of chatting, quietly, about the what the news conference will be about. I've spoken to a couple different people, and what I'm being told it's about an update into the death of Rep. Plen. I'll now step to the side here so we can listen in."

"Shhhh!" Rep. Quinn pointed his finger at his lips. The room quieted down.

The news cameras pointed towards Commissioner Wilson, who stepped towards the podium. "Good morning, and thank you all for being here today. Rep. Plen was a wonderful person who was trying to make the state and the community, better. His death was a tragic blow and we send sincere condolences to his family. We are here today to announce a major development in the case. We have certain evidence, and interviews done with witnesses over the last few days, that we have a suspect."

"Obviously." Nick said.

Rep. Quinn gave him the look. Wilson went on to speak about more in depth of the case as much as she could. The television was static for a few second, which caused the whole room to groan at. "After much investigation, we have come to the conclusion that our suspect in the death of Rep. Plen is not other than his widow, Laura Plen."

"What the hell?" Hazel bellowed.

"Laura, the woman whom we were comforting just yesterday?"

Murmurs once again moved around the room again as Rep. Quinn was sitting looking at the television in complete shock. He didn't even think Laura would be so capable of murdering her own husband. They were both perfect for each other. Rep. Quinn quickly exited the conference room, and left the staffers in there, trying to figure out what to do next. Blake made a quick phone call and also got up from his chair and left the room. It was a deep voice. "We need to make a move here."

"I know, this is something we have to work with here. Laura is being accused of her own husband's murder? Weird right?"

"See me tomorrow at The Mend. Let's talk then." The other person on the other line said.

Blake walked back into the room, where the phones were going off like madness, from journalists asking for comment about Laura to asking them random questions that were basically nonsense. Blake took one good look at the craziness going on in the room and left. He needed to be prepared for what he was going to hear in the morning.

Chapter 4

It was about 7:30 the next morning and Blake was still asleep in his bed, not realizing he had that meeting with his co-partner. His alarm went off about five minutes later and then came out, "Oh, crap!"

It was in about fifteen minutes time when he hopped in the shower, picking out his outfit for the day and dashing out the door, realizing what he had just done. He hopped into his car and hurried to The Mend, where he could see his co-partner sitting there waiting for him, looking at his watch and also the daily newspaper. After he found a parking spot, he ran in. Out of breath, he muttered his order and went straight to the table where a spot was saved for him. "Good of you to meet me here." His co-partner said.

"Sorry, I also forgot about this. It's been a long night, Owen, trust me." Blake replied.

"I get it. I used to be in those shoes for a while." Owen hastily replied.

Blake's order came to the table and they started discussing inside details about the murder case of Rep. Plen. Owen asked him about his time working in his office and also if he noticed anything different from him the last few months. "No, I don't. He was a wonderful person to work for and I didn't really think anything was going on. They seemed like a lovely couple. I wasn't aware of anything." Blake answered.

"Something must've happened in the last couple of weeks to months to have his own wife now widow snap." Owen said back.

They discussed more about the case and other things, then they split apart, promising to call each other if they were hearing of anything. Blake then drove back to his apartment to grab a couple of things, then drove back to the assembly office, where he met Hazel and Nick, who were still dealing with press questions. "Seems like you guys sort of had an overnighter." Blake said. "Yes, sir." Nick tiredly replied back.

"I met with a friend of mine for breakfast this morning. Asked me some interesting questions about the case that we're working on for work. Has the press asked you for anything relating to this, documentation, text messages, anything?" Blake asked.

"Nope, nothing except for the one reporter, Kate Oakes. She's asking questions about if we knew something was up or if there was anything we could provider for her." Hazel said, while having a donut.

Blake thought about it for a minute. Something seemed odd in particular. He remembered Kate from the day of the funeral, heading home from the reception. He thought about it for a minute and mentioned it to the group about how odd this all seemed. They all agreed. "Is my coffee order here yet?" Nick asked at that time. At that point, Blake thought they were close to done with coffee for the day. "Guys, we need to figure out what the hell is going on here. I'm calling Kate." Blake said.

"That's not a good idea. I know this is all weird and everything about the connection, but you shouldn't do that, Blake." Hazel defiantly rebutted back.

"It'll be ok. I'm not going to say anything." Blake said right back as he left the room with his cell phone, ready to dial.

The phone rang for almost 10 seconds. "Local 6, this is Kate."

"Kate, this is Blake, my friend Nick here was the one whom you confronted yesterday." Blake replied.

"Oh hi, is he available right now? I need to ask him some questions."

"Actually, I used to work for the late Rep. Plen. I can answer pretty much any questions you wanted."

Blake heard a sigh over the phone, actually, a couple of them before Kate said back, "Did you know that Rep. Plen was having sort of an affair?" Blake dropped the phone. He picked it back up seconds later. "Hello, are you still there?"

"Yes I'm still here, I'm not aware of anything that my former boss had an affair. That is just complete ludicrous." Blake shockingly replied back.

"There's documents and phone calls that were made from the office when you were still working there. Do you have any somewhat of a response to that?" Kate rebutted.

"No, I don't." Blake annoyingly said back as he hung up the phone.

He was about to walk back into the conference room when his phone rang. He picked it up. "Hey, it's Owen, why the hell is my fax machine going wild from Local 6?"

"Oh, good God." Blake said, "I'll be there in just a few minutes, I have some explaining to do." He said as he hung up the phone again and ran towards his car.

It only took him only ten minutes for him to drive from the Assembly building to the FBI downtown, which would've been a fifteen-minute drive, but with not much traffic, he made it quicker than he thought.

"Did someone from Local 6 call you this morning?" Owen asked as Blake walked into his office.

"Yes, Kate Oakes, she's a reporter. The one who was asking me a whole bunch of questions after the funeral and actually managed to run away from her." Blake said, "But, I did call her this morning, because she was trying to call my friend who works in the Assembly repeatedly."

"Great. Can you please explain these documents to me?" Owen replied back.

Owen gave the documents to Blake and he took one good look at them. If this had come up during while Rep. Plen was still alive, it would be the one that would've likely cost his career.

Chapter 5

The timing of an hour and a half felt like hours to Blake as he sat in the office chair with the files spread all over his desk. Could they be fabricated and not telling the truth, or was his beloved boss actually engaged in a coverup affair that went absolutely wrong and didn't think that anyone would find out? He didn't know for sure, but that was something they would likely need to go and investigate much further. But, there was no way where he could start. He got up from his chair and started walking around the room, to release himself from the mindset he would take up again in just a short amount of time. In fact, it would be just for a short minute, by the time he could make it back to his desk, his laptop chirped. It was an email. He sat down and looked at it. Nothing much, just the normal work emails that someone would get on any random day.